This invention relates to a material handling container for shipping and storing manufactured products, and more particularly to a material handling container for storing and shipping rolls of wound fabric or sheets of thin film which are shipped using elongated cores.
In the textile industry, fabric is often shipped in elongated cylindrical rolls utilizing elongated cores. This is also true for the shipping of plastic film. Difficulty arises from the material handling viewpoint in that the sizes of the material being shipped vary in the length of the cores and the width of the rolls. The variations in the material sizes generally depend upon the particular requirements of the customer.
Currently, the elongated rolls are shipped on pallets having fixed lengths and widths. The rolls are positioned in end plates having a central portion for receiving the elongated rolls. The end plates are then are placed on the pallets and secured in place. However, since the rolls vary in length, different sizes of pallets are used to ship the rolls and a large quantity of different size pallets are kept in inventory.
The use of pallets having various sizes is very inconvenient and expensive. To accommodate for the various sizes of rolls which may be required to be shipped, every warehouse may have over 50 different types of pallets on hand having various widths and lengths with numerous quantities of each type of pallet on hand. Accordingly, there is an excessive amount of money tied up in pallets which are on hand solely for a particular size shipping job which may or may not be demanded by a customer. Additionally, the numerous pallets occupy a large area of the warehouse which could be used for more productive purposes.
Some solutions for storing various size rolls have been proposed. U.S. Pat. No. 4,151,914 discloses a shipping and storage container having an open top box structure comprised of blanks which have score lines for folding which may be stapled to one another to define a box of various lengths and widths. However, once the box components are stapled, the box still requires a pallet to be used for handling and transfer of the loaded container. Accordingly, many different size pallets will be required to ship rolls of various lengths.
Also, U.S. Pat. No. 4,042,107 discloses a rigid shipping container for elongated rolls. The rigid shipping container includes a plurality of spaced holes which receive pins connected with end plate assemblies. Accordingly, while the structure would accommodate rolls of different lengths, it is not flexible to accommodate rolls of different widths. Furthermore, the rigid nature of the structure provides for a waste of material when the rolls are greatly smaller than the size of the container.
Accordingly, a need exists for providing a shipping container for shipping and handling rolls of material of different lengths and different widths wound on elongated cores, thereby alleviating the need to have various size pallets for their shipping and handling.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an adjustable shipping container which can ship cylindrical rolls of material of various lengths and widths;
Furthermore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a shipping and storage container that may easily expand in a longitudinal and lateral position for shipping and storing cylindrical rolls of material of different lengths and widths;
Also, it is an object of the present invention to provide a storage and shipping container which may easily be handled by a forklift truck;
Additionally, it is an object of the present invention to provide a storage and shipping container for storing and shipping cylindrical rolls that is easily adjustable in a lateral and longitudinal direction without an excessive waste of materials.